Digital Project on Cyber War

http://vnblake.wix.com/isis-vs-anonymous

I have provided the URL for my Digital Project website, as well as my Wordle™ Word Cloud.

This word cloud identifies the dominant themes related to the cyber war between ISIS & Anonymous.  Isis has been using social media to glorify violence, prompting Anonymous’ hack attack by shutting down many accounts. The media attacks will continue to be a recurring theme, as one account is taken down, more are created to replace them.

A theme that dominates the word cloud is Ghost Group. It can be easily mistaken for anonymous, but this is actually another group known as the “Ghost Security Group”. They disagree with Anonymous’ plan to shut down the terrorists, but instead think it is better to surveil ISIS communications. The word cloud conveniently positioned it next to ISIS as if to show they really are keeping a close eye.

Browsing through the word cloud a summary could be made using some of the main themes. Twitter plays a major role in the cyber war in that it is ISIS’s preferred social media site. This has caused rising criticism that Twitter is allowing the Islamic State to exploit the social network to spread terror and seek recruits. In response to the allegations, Twitter suspended ISIS related accounts. If it were up to Ghost Group, they would have thought it better to monitor the Islamic State militants than silence them.

Victims in Paris, social media asks, what about #Beirut

On Friday November 13, 2015, multiple coordinated attacks rocked Paris, France.  In the immediate aftermath, people took to social media. A day before, Beirut, Lebanon was also attacked but sadly did not receive as much media attention as the attacks on Paris. 

 

Social Media is a computer-mediated tool that allow people to create, share or exchange information, and pictures/videos virtual communities instantly. By that definition it would make sense to think that it is a force for good. However, in the case of the terror attacks on Paris, France and Beirut, Lebanon, we can see how the misinformation shared, served as a force for ill.

The real issue is with all media that gives instant access, which we saw how that raised issues because people believed the first thing that made news without verifying. Social media is not the problem, as it served a great good in that people were able to use it and let friends and family know they were safe.  More importantly, others used social media to report on the attacks and provide officials with key information that helped identify the attackers. If not for social media this would have not be possible, as in past times of crisis, there were limited means of contacting loved ones. Information was much more difficult to obtain, taking longer to draw any conclusions about the perpetrators or the causes of the attacks.

Another issue was something that has always happened but with social media it is able to happen on a much wider scale. There was immediate speculation about who the attackers were and much of which was not verified.  Many used social media to spread hatred, racism and intolerance with fake stories, and edited photos, which created confusion. Taking away from the focus to deal directly with these threats. In this way the use of social media was ill but as you can see, it's people who were to blame. We need not simply rely on the American media as we see how it's bias made for inaccurate news, and not just blindly accept what is being told is the truth. 

  “Many of the developed world's citizens gave no conscious thought to Islam pre-9/11. Now we switch on the news every evening and, though there are many trouble spots around the world, as a general rule it's easy to make an educated guess at one of the participants: Muslims vs Jews in "Palestine", Muslims vs Hindus in Kashmir, Muslims vs Christians in Africa, Muslims vs Buddhists in Thailand, Muslims vs Russians in the Caucasus, Muslims vs backpacking tourists in Bali, Muslims vs Danish cartoonists in Scandinavi."
                                                            ~Mark Steyn

http://www.steynonline.com/7308/the-week-in-nothing-to-do-with-islam

Selfies & Trolling

My feelings on selfies are mixed. On the one hand, despite rarely taking selfies to post online, I think a selfie here and there is acceptable. On the other hand, when selfies are the majority of what is being posted, something is definitely wrong. Most say it’s a way to show that they are confident in themselves, at the same time some people over-post because of low self-esteem. Recently I’ve been informed of a few case studies that point to possible psychological issues of people who post selfies. I don’t know anybody who is obsessed with posting selfies, but if I did I would certainly refer them to the studies that relate their actions to those of narcissists. 

Some question if the internet and social media created this phenomenon, but maybe people are just taking advantage of the larger platform. These resources have simply provided a means for these issues to be better identified.  People must be mindful that posting selfies on the web exposes them to public criticism. There are people online who won't hesitate to attack a person’s picture (selfie) to call them ugly among other insults. Apparently, it's the fear of being harshly judged on how they look, why people spend so much time perfecting and posting selfies. This need to feel beautiful is seen as an insecurity that leaves them open for attack by cyber bullies. Which brings me to trolling.

I think internet and social media have created this trolling phenomenon.

Luckily I don't know anybody who is a troll nor have I been victimized by a troll.
There are studies  done on "trolls" finding them to be psychopaths.
Based on the information provided, I believe that the psychological issues associated with trolls are accurate.

http://time.com/8265/internet-trolls-are-actually-sadists-study-finds/

To blog or not to blog?

 Hey bloggers!

Here I am on blogger writing a blog entry about blogs.

What are blogs and why do people write them?       There are many types of blogs.

 

Aside from the standard informative blogs, there are 'art blogs' which of course are artistically based, 'photblogs' resembling Instagram, video blogs called 'vlogs' and audio blogs known as 'podcasts'. In education, blogs can be used as instructional resources. For instance, my blog would be referred to as an edublog, as it was assigned for the semester to engage the course content. I think this concept was a great idea, as blogging turned out to be a very effective way to engage the course content. It forced me to think critically about issues while outside the classroom, and knowing that I have to post responses, prompts me to research the topics to then state my views.

Before creating my first blog in the spring, I thought one needed to have computer coding HTML knowledge to post on the web. Lucky for me, there are user friendly sites such as 

that allow even non-technical users to post for FREE!

 Had it not been a class requirement, I would have still chosen to blog as I've always been better at expressing myself through writing than speaking. I am always multitasking, so I find that I have to make reminders of things, or else I run the risk of totally forgetting. When I was younger I would keep a diary to write down a day's worth of adventures as I was determined to write an autobiography. At fifteen I was convinced that my life could be a movie, so I transferred my experiences onto a laptop. Unfortunately I lost access to that p.c. and at the time I did not yet own a flash drive, so majority of my memories are lost to me. If I knew about blogs then, I could have created my very own; diary style and posted my story. Who knows, maybe i would have published a book.

A very successful blog is the insanely popular TMZ site, which boasts 30 million monthly visitors!!!

"This blog is popular for a reason...we are curious about how the elite live with fame and fortune – sometimes a life to which we aspire. TMZ feeds this desire for such information while feeding and sustaining the desire for more content on the subject. The headlines – specific, salacious, and appealing – pique curiosity." http://contentmarketinginstitute.com/2015/05/learn-popular-blogs/

This is clearly an effective strategy as evidenced by the fact that TMZ's visitors are in the millions. If I had a blog, I would take this lesson and run with it. I would grab my readers' attention with intriguing headlines and offer exclusive information in my blog to keep them coming back for more.

Is Technology Destroying Language?

Technology can be a great thing, and it definitely is, when not abused. Like technology, language has evolved to be more informal, and as people progressed, we continued to adapt to the changing tech world. Those convinced technology is destroying the English language points to online jargon as the blame. There are many ways to describe online language, but in this post I will use the term "netspeak". See link http://technologyandlanguage.weebly.com/destruction.html. 

In my opinion, technology is not the blame. As texting became a more popular form of communicating, people incorporated netspeak in their regular and professional lives. My view on netspeak is that it shouldn't matter what form of communication is used, as long as the desired message is conveyed. I myself have been guilty of taking short cuts in my writing. I got so accustomed to certain perks such as auto-correct, that I stopped proofreading texts before hitting send, causing me to go over and edit. If I had slowed down to look it over in the first place, i wouldn't need to go back and fix a typo. Most resort to netspeak because it is convenient and allows us to express ourselves more quickly rather than to write out entire sentences. However, people should remember that everything has an appropriate time and place.

Netspeak has become an epidemic with teens as they even have conversations speaking in the acronyms. In others words, rather than saying the actual words, they spell them out as they would in a text such as omg, jk, lol, wtf, wth, ttyl. In this way teens prove to be the biggest abusers of technology. In closing, if people think technology is destroying language, they should remember that it was people who created it in the first place.